Toy building kit with optical component



0d. 27, 1970 A, ||5HER 3,535,817

TOY BUILDING KIT WITH OPTICAL COMPONENT Filed Feb. l, 1967 INVENTOR. ARTUR FISCHER United States Patent O 3,535,817 TOY BUILDING KIT WITH OPTICAL COMPONENT Artur Fischer, Grunmettstetterstrasse 133, Tumlingen, Germany Filed Feb. 1, 1967, Ser. No. 618,255 Claims priority, application Germany, Feb. 8, 1966,

Int. Cl. A63h 33/08 U.S. Cl. 46-17 3 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE For use in a toy building kit, a holding element for holding optical components, such as lenses, mirrors and the like. The holding element consists of a member having a iirst type of connecting means for connecting the optical component to the holding element, and a second type of connecting means for connecting the holding element to other structural elements of the building kit.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS A toy building kit for use with which the novel holding element is particularly well suited, is disclosed in my copending application Ser. No. 492,646, tiled on Oct. 4, 1965, under the title Assembly Kit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In my above-mentioned copending application I have disclosed a toy building kit comprising a plurality of structural elements. These structural elements can be connected to each other by means of cooperating male and female connecting portions, namely elongated undercut grooves provided on some or all of the structural elements and projecting male coupling heads provided also on some or all of the elements and having a cross-sectional conguration complementary to that of the undercut grooves. Thus, when such a coupling head is introduced endwise into one of the grooves, withdrawal from the groove in the direction transversely to the elongation thereof is impossible and a reliable but also releasable connection is established.

Building kits of this type have found wide acceptance because of their versatility in constructing replicas of actual buildings, vehicles, structures, devices and artifacts. It is this very versatility which presents a challenge to children using such kits. In view of this, it is clearly desireable to further increase such versatility.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention achieves this purpose in increasing the versatility of toy building kits of the type outlined above.

More particularly, the present invention makes possible the use of such toy building kits for constructing replicas of optical instruments, such as microscopes and the like.

In accordance with one feature of my invention I provide, for use in a toy building kit of the type which cornprises a plurality of connectable structural elements, a holding element for an optical component. This holding element includes rst connecting means provided for the purpose of connecting such an optical component to the holding element. It further includes second connecting means for the purpose of releasably connecting the holding element and the optical component carried thereby to structural elements of the toy `building kit in any of a plurality of positions of the thus connected elements relative to one another.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the ap- 3,535,817 Patented Oct. 27, 1970 FIG. l is a top-plan view of a holding element embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a partially sectioned edge vie'w of the holding element in FIG. 1, illustrating the same as being connected to other structural elements of a toy building kit;

FIG. 3 is a side-elevational view of an exemplary arrangement utilizing the embodiment of FIG. l;

FIG. 4 is a top-plan view of another holding element embodying the invention;

FIG. 5 is a side-view of the embodiment of FIG. 4, showing an optical component connected thereto;

FIG. 6 shows a top-plan view of a support for a plurality of holding elements of the type shown in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary construction utilizing the elements illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 6.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now the drawing in detail, and firstly FIGS. l and 2 thereof, it will be seen that the holding element illustrated therein is a plate member generally indicated with reference numeral 5 and in this embodiment shown to be of rectangular conguration. The plate member 5 is provided with an aperture 4 therethrough which is illustrated as being centrally located, although it may be positioned in a different manner. FIG. 2 shows that the inner circumferential surface which bounds the aperture 4 is provided with a radial groove 9 of substantially V-shaped configuration and it is evident from FIG. 2 how an optical component, such as a lens 4a can be secured in the aperture 4 by having its peripheral edge portion snapped into the groove 9. Of course, the lens 4a which is illustrated in FIG. 2 is intended only as an example since evidently a fiat glass member, a mirror or another component, could be similarly secured.

Plate member 5 is further provided on each major surface thereof with a pair of grooves 6 which extend along respective opposite edge portions, as evident from FIG. l. FIG. 2 shows more clearly that the grooves which extend along one and the same edge portion, but on the opposite major surfaces of the plate member 5, are located in a common plane normal to the major surfaces. The reason for these grooves is evident from a consideration of FIG. 2 where the plate member 5 is shown connected to structural elements 1 forming a part of the toy building kit. These structural elements 1, which have been disclosed in my above-mentioned copending application, are provided with elongated undercut grooves 2 which, at the surfaces in which these grooves 2 are formed, comprise shoulders 2a extending toward one another across the respective groove, The grooves 6 in plate member 5 are so contigurated that the shoulders 2a of the structural element 1 can engage a pair of grooves 6 located on opposite major surfaces of the plate member 5 so that a tight frictional connection is established between the respective structural element l and the plate member 5. The two remaining edge portions of the plate member 5, respectively indicated with reference numerals 7 and 7 are each provided with a male coupling head 8 projecting therefrom and having preferably a circular cross-section.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary arrangement which can be constructed from a plurality of the structural elements of which the top building kit is composed, in combination with the holding element shown in FIG. l. It will be seen that the three structural elements 1 are connected to one another by having the coupling heads 3 thereof, which correspond to the coupling heads 8 of the plate member 5, received in respective undercut grooves 2 and 2. There is also shown a structural element 1', which corresponds to the structural element 1 except for the fact that it is shorter. The plate member 5 is shown connected to one of the structural elements 1 by having one of its male coupling heads 8 received in one of the undercut grooves 2 provided in this structural element 1. As indicated in FIG. 3, the plate metnber 5 is thus turnable about the so connected coupling head 8, and an alternate position is shown in dotdash lines. lt should be understood that it will ordinarily be preferable to provide a construction similar to that composed of the structural elements 1 and 1' at the opposite side of the plate member S also, and the second coupling head 8 of the plate member 5 would then be connected to this other construction whereby the plate member 5 is then freely turnable about an axis defined by these two coupling heads.

Coming now to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, it will be seen that this differs from the one shown in FIGS. l and 2 in that the holding element is not plateshaped but has a basic cross-sectional configuration corresponding to that of the structural elements 1 and 1. The holding element in FIGS. 4 and 5 is generally indicated with reference numeral 10 and carries at one end face thereof a male coupling head 23 corresponding to the coupling heads 8 shown in FIG. l. The other end portion of u the holding element 10 is configurated as a clamping portion 24 for holding, as indicated in FIG. 5. an optical component 4. FIG. 4 clearly shows that the clamping portion, identified with reference numeral 24, is of annular contigui-ation and is provided with a slot 14. The material of holding member 10 is resilient, a synthetic resin material being preferred, and the provision of slot 14 makes it possible to introduce the optical component 4, which has a slightly larger diameter than the inner diameter of the clamping portion 24, into the latter which, because of its resilient characteristic, then clamps the optical component 4 in place. FIG. 5 shows that two of the laternal faces of the member 10, or rather of that portion thereof which is of polygonal cross-section, are provided with elongated grooves 22 which are undercut in the manner of the grooves 2 shown on the structural elements 1 which are illustrated in FIG. 2. At least one of the remaining lateral faces of member 10, and preferably both thereof, is provided with a male coupling head 23, whose crosssection in this instance is not circular, but rather quadratic as clearly evident in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 shows a circular support 11 which is adapted to carry one or more of the holding members 10 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. To this end, the support 11 is provided with a plurality of radially extending undercut grooves 13 and with a center bore 15. It will be understood that each of the grooves 13 can receive a coupling head 23' of a holding member 10, and FIG. 6 shows one such holding member 10 connected to the support 1l, with its connected coupling head 23', which is received in the corresponding groove 13 and thus invisible, being shown in dashed lines. For the sake of clarity FIG. 6 also shows two additional elements 10 in dot-dash lines to indicate how they, also, can be connected to the support 11. Thus, a combination of the support 11 with holding elements 10, such as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, results in a revolving objective-holder and it will be understood that the lenses or objectives held in the respective holding elements 10 may have different optical properties.

FIG. 7 shows an arrangement illustrating the use of the support 11 as such an objective holder. A holding element 10 will be seen to be connected to the spport 11 and to carry the optical component 4' which has already been illustrated in FIG. 5. Support 11 is arranged turnable about an axis defined by a shaft of pin 16 which extends through the bore 15 of the support 11 and which, in turn,

is received in an undercut groove 2 of a structural element 1. The structural clement 1 is itself connected to other structural elements and these include two laterally projecting elements which serve as supporting arms 17 and 18, respectively. The supporting arm 17 carries a plate member 5 corresponding to the element 5 shown in FIG. l and in this instance the plate member 5 is assumed to have received in the aperture 4 thereof a nonoptical glass member serving as a support for an object or particle which is to be examined through the optical component 4. The arm 17 is adjustable, that is, it can be moved toward and away from the element l() in the direction of the double-headed arrow by sliding its (nonillustrated) coupling head in the aligned (non-illustrated) grooves of the structural elements 1 to thus permit proper focusing. The second arm, designated with reference numeral 18, is assumed to carry a plate member 5" which is indicated in two positions of adjustment in phantom lines. The plate member 5" also corresponds to the member 5 of FIG. 1 and may carry in its aperture 4 a mirror which can serve to direct light through the glass carried by the member 5' to thereby illuminate the object or particle which is supported on the glass and which is to be examined through the optical component 4'.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of building kits, differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a toy building kit, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

1. In a toy building kit, in combination, a plurality of connectable structural elements; cooperating coupling means, including undercut grooves provided on at least some of said structural elements and matingly congurated coupling heads provided on at least some others of said structural elements; an optical component; a holding element for said optical component, including a plate member having a pair of oppositely directed major surfaces, an aperture for said optical component extending from one to the other of said surfaces and being bounded by an inner circumferential surface; a pair of grooves provided in the region of and along at least one edge portion of said plate member and extending inwardly of the respective major surface; rst connecting means on said inner circumferential surface for connecting said optical component to said holding element; second connecting means mating with said coupling means for releasably connecting said holding element together with said optical component to said structural elements in any of a plurality of relative positions; and third connecting means for rotatably connecting said plate member between two of said structural elements, said third connecting means including substantially circular male coupling heads of undercut configuration extending from opposed additional edge portions of said plate member which extend transversely with reference to said one edge portion.

2. In a toy building kit, as defined in claim 1 wherein said first connecting means comprises an annular groove of substantially V-shaped cross-section provided in said inner circumferential surface bounding said aperture.

3. In a toy building kit as defined in claim l, wherein Said plate member is provided with a slot extending from said inner circumferential surface to an outer edge of said plate member, thus providing a pair of radially deflectable plate portions adapted to clampingly engage said optical component.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 7/l9l2 1l/1937 11/1960 6/1903 1/1951 2/1956 Sellheim 24U-152 X Langdon 240-151 X Balser 240-151 X Thomsen 46-23 Button S50-116 Frischmann S50-257 X FOREIGN PATENTS 2/1949 France. 4/1956 France. 6/ 1964 Switzerland.

F. BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

